Chapter Fifteen: Rival

THEY TRIED IT ONCE MORE BUT IT really wasn't working that well. Had that first time been a fluke? "Geeze, it doesn't seem like this is working out that well." Endo commented as they watched Shōyō miss the ball again. However, it was thankfully saved by their captain who was able to get the last hit over the net. Though Nekoma was still able to save it, curse their cat-like reflexes.

The rally went on for a while as Nekoma kept making revieces and Karasuno did their best to keep making good blocks. Though it still ended with the cats getting this one point thanks to Yamamoto.

On the Nekoma bench, Shibayama turned to his coach and manager, "Taketora is more into it than usual."

Yua nodded her head in agreement, "You're right, he's certainly more fiery in this game."

"Maybe it's because there's someone a lot like himself at Karasuno." Nekomata commented, gazing at Tanaka and Yamamoto(the possible long-lost twins). "Or maybe he's being inspired by the battle between Inuoka and their number 10?" It's true, these teams certainly had found some good adversaries in each other. It seemed like each player had found an opponent to try and knock down a peg. 

"Hinata and Kageyama's fast attacks just aren't lining up," Takeda groaned on the Karasuno side.

Sakura shrugged her shoulders, "It's understandable considering they're still such a new team. So a new strategy with even the smallest adjustment might take a while for them to get comfortable with."

Ukai nodded his head with his hand on his chin, "Unlike the deviant fast attacks they've been doing up till now where Kageyama aligns perfectly to Hinata's moves, they're now attempting to do normal fast attacks." They all watched the game with a critical eye. "Hinata needs technical improvement. The only way to accomplish that is conditioning through repetition. But if he gets the conditioning down, and learns when to use the two different attack types…"

Nekomata narrowed his eyes at the freak pair on Karasuno, "...then those two will no longer be 'a demon and his iron club'. They will be 'demon' and 'demon'."

The game continued on with Nekoma serving to Karasuno. It was hit over and heading straight for Shōyō who wasn't sure if he should receive it overhand or underhand. Though he didn't decide quick enough as he was hit in the chest with it. It still was in play, but now the orange-haired teen was on the ground.

Sakura smirked lightly, "that's another one for the collection." Takeda and Ukai eyed the girl with uncertainty. Both of them thinking along the same lines of her being a bit of a sadist. It was a bit unsettling to them.

"Cover it!" Karasuno's Number 5 called out.

Nishinoya saved it and hit it towards him, "Ryu!"

"You got it!" Tanaka shouted as he ran up to the net, "Asahi ain't the only one who can pull his weight at crunch time!" He spiked the ball and was able to bounce it off of Yamamoto's hand and out of bounds, giving Karasuno a point.

Nishinoya and Tanaka pumped their fists together as they celebrated their win. "Boo-yah, boo-yah, boo-yah, boo-yah!" Though it was really only to infuriate the mohawk boy on the other team, which it certainly did.

Sakura just watched the game intently, like a good spectator should. She found it quite interesting how each team was fueling each other's hunger for victory. This truly is what competition is like. Not what she's seen of her brother's first game in middle school where there was no doubt who was going to win. This time, instead of one team getting an easy win, these two teams were battling it out on somewhat level playing fields. Each player, on both sides, were all pretty skilled in volleyball. Really, in Sakura's mind, it was just going to come down to which team can use all of their players' skills in a cohesive manner to get the edge over the other. She also thought that was most likely Nekoma considering Karasuno is a pretty green team. Though no matter who wins, Karasuno will learn new skills about themselves and how well they work together. Vital information that can be used to better the team for official games. With how she is so analytical about the players and the game in front of her, it truly is a surprise that she isn't either playing volleyball herself or a team manager!

"Nice one-touch!" Nishinoya shouted, breaking Sakura from her thoughts as she glanced over to see that it was Shōyō who had blocked Inuoka's spike.

Daichi called out, "Chance ball!"

Kageyama got ready to set the ball as Nekoma also prepared themselves for an attack. Yua's green eyes sparkled as she watched the small orang-ehaired teen sprint across the court like it was nothing. "Look at him go!" She hasn't really seen that type of speed before, of course, she's seen her fair share of players from all over the country, so that's saying something.

Shibayama gasped in shock, "He's fast!"

With the Karasuno benchwarmers, they all watched as Inuoka tried to keep up with their little shorty. "Nekoma's number 7 has fast reflexes too!" Suga shouted.

"My, my, these rivalries are starting to heat up the gym." Endo commented, pretending to cool himself down with his hand. He quite liked how Nekoma was bringing about this competition from Karasuno, which just means there's some opportunities for juicy drama.

"They influence one another in on-the-edge combat," Nekomata commented, noticing the growing friction between the teams, "and occasionally draw out more power than their talent allows. These are truly worth adversaries."

Shōyō was able to hit that ball, albeit weakly, onto Nekoma's side and got the point since Yaku couldn't save it. Suga pumped a fist, "He got past!"

"It's in!" Yamaguchi exclaimed

Endo clapped once with a cheer, "Well done!"

The game progressed just like usual and eventually the scores were 15-18 with Nekoma in the lead. Karasuno's vice captain shook his head, "I don't want them to hit 20 before we do."

Nemoka's number 7 then had to serve for his team, which meant that the other middle blocker of the team stepped up to the net. Kuroo stared down at his small opponent with his hands on his hips and a smirk. His cat-like eyes surveyed the smaller boy impressiveness shining in them and sparking in sly determination. "Inuoka's eight inches taller than you," Kuroo commented, "but you're more than a match for him. That's amazing, Small Fry."

Shōyō bristled, "You're the small fry, Small Fry!" It kind of looked like a baby crow shouting at a smirking cat. Before anything else could be said between them, Kageyama then grabbed the back of Shōyō's jersey and pulled him away for a short discussion.

Endo eyed Kuroo, his blue eyes filled with admiration for him and calculating just what type of player the other third-year is. He tapped his chin, "No way they can get around Mr. Tall, dark and handsome with a normal quick attack."

"Do you really have to call him that?" Suga deadpanned at his friend's description of the other captain. Endo really doesn't know when to quit sometimes, Suga is more than aware of that.

Endo scoffed as if Suga's question was completely absurd, "Yes. Don't act like you can't see it Suga." Really, Kuroo is quite the specimen, in Endo's opinion. He then cooed as they looked at Shōyō and Kageyama muttering to each other. "Look at them scheming together. Rubbing their two brain cells together for a plan."

They then continued on with the next battle for the point. "Inuoka, nice serve!" Yaku yelled encouragement as the first-year hit the ball over the net.

Though the ball was received by Nishinoya and passed to Kageyama who set it for Shōyō, effectively performing their closed-eyed freak perfectly. Kuroo wasn't expecting it or fast enough to try and stop it, so it earned Karasuno a point.

Yua tilted her head while absentmindedly writing in her notebook, "Kuroo couldn't even stop their quick," she brightened, "I'm liking these guys even more and more."

On the court, the short boy jumped with his brown eyes wide, "I really do love this sensation!" Shōyō exclaimed, blushing as he stared at his stinging palm.

Ukai nodded his head while sitting on the bench, "That was a good decision. I think for now, their deviant fast attack is more effective against Nekoma's third-year middle blocker. A normal fast attack would obviously be easier for their skillful middle blocker to block."

Sakura nodded her head at the observation, "that was actually pretty smart of the king, who knew he could think that strategically." Though when it came to volleyball, she shouldn't be that surprised Kageyama was extremely smart when it comes to the sport. She is well aware that academically, he's not that intelligent and he has little to no common sense. However, when it comes to volleyball, he's a genius, she can't deny that.

On the other side of the net, Kuroo and Kenma watched their opponents. "He really is amazing. He's the dictionary definition of the word 'superhuman'." Kuroo commented with his eyes sharpening, "All right then, let's take it back."

 ---

Shōyō served the ball for the next point which was easily received by Yaku. It was passed to Kenma as every Nekoma team member ran up to the net and jumped as though they were going to be the one to spike it over.

"Yikes, it's all jumbled somehow," Takeda gasped.

It looked as though Yamamoto was going to be the one who was going to hit the ball, but instead Fukunaga ran up from behind the pack of cats for a back attack. That certainly shook up Karasuno as he was easily able to evade their blockers. Though it ended up being saved by Shōyō's face. It seems like his face is a bit of a magnet for volleyball nowadays. 

Sakura took note of the back attack while putting down her camera after getting another picture of her brother. A tactic that could easily be replicated by Karasuno at a later time that they could use against their opponents is a good thing. No doubt in her mind that they would try to copy it at some point.

"Chance ball!" Kuroo called out as he received it.

Asahi shook a little bit, "Who will get it this time?"

This time Kenma had set it up for Kuroo who performed a textbook definition of a quick attack. Ukai eyed them critically, "That fast attack has some impressive stability. Though it might just look stable compared to Hinata's usual erratic moves."

By the Karasuno benchwarmers, Endo whistled lowly. "Not only is he good looking, but he's also a decent player," the drama queen pretend to swoon, "take me now, Kuroo-kun~"

Suga, growing fed up with Endo's seeming infatuation with this guy, hit the back of the blond's neck, effectively stopping Endo. "Stop being annoying!"

Endo whined while rubbing the back of his neck, "I'm only admiring a fellow player, what's so wrong about that!"

"Everything." The vice captain stated blandly as Yamaguchi watched his senpai's interaction uncertainly. The first-year hasn't had that many interactions with Endo, never trying to talk to him since he thought that Endo was a bit much. However, he knows that the older boy is very lively, to put it lightly. It's not that Yamaguchi didn't like Endo or anything, he just wasn't sure how to go about talking with such an excitable person, after all he usually has to deal with the ever vibrant Shōyō all the time. He could really only deal with one intense person at a time.

Nekoma served the next ball now with the score being 16-19 in the cats favor. Yaku yelled out some encouragement like a good team mom, "Yamamoto, nice serve!"

"Crap!" Tanaka called out after receiving the ball, "Sorry, cover it!""

Asahi raised his hand towards Nishinoya who saved it, "I'm open!"

"Asahi!" The libero called out while setting the ball to him. Even though Karasuno's ace has a pretty powerful spike, Yaku was able to receive it almost perfectly.

Kenma got the ball and set it for Kuroo, just like last time. Only difference was that instead of hitting a quick, Kuroo seemingly waited a moment before jumping up to hit the ball. This left him basically wide open since the blockers had already started to fall back to the ground.

"What was that attack?" Takeda turned to Ukai with wide eyes. Sakura also turned to the coach questioningly, not knowing what it was either. Sure, she knows a lot about volleyball despite not being a player, but she doesn't know everything.

Ukai huffed slightly in annoyance, "A delayed spike. You make it look like you're about to jump for a quick attack, throw off the opponent's block timing, and hit. This attack hasn't been that popular recently. I'm impressed they threw it in right after their quick attack A. They're good."

"Good job, boys!" Yua called out to her team from the bench. She jumped up and down on the balls of her feet with a wide, toothy smile and two thumbs up, her hair bouncing around her like a curtain, "You're doing great!" Nearly all the boys preened in her praise, like usual. Except for Kenma, who cringed at her shout and muttered under his breath about how annoying she could be. Though deep down, he was more than glad to have her support, at least a little bit, even if he doesn't show it.

Ukai groaned a little bit, "This is bad. I've already used both of our time-outs." Those sitting on the bench felt a smug aura radiating from the Nekoma's side and saw the cat coach smirking smugly at them. Ukai gaped, "Aw, shit! He's smirking at me!"

"Ever since their Number 1 came up to the front row," Takeda commented, "their attacks seem to have more of a sense of proficiency."

"You're right. Half of our starting lineup is made up of first-years. If you call us Level 1 with our newly assembled team, that would put them 10 or 20 levels higher."

"So," the advisor tapped his chin as he looked for a comparison, "they are a full grown adult cat and we're a freshly hatched baby crow."

Ukai nodded his head at the imagery, "Yeah, that, good description. No matter how we struggle against their versatile range of offense and defense, we can't possibly win. Not today anyway. Which means… …our only option is persistence and tenacity! Attack them with power and speed!"

Tanaka smirked viciously, his eyes glinting red as his teeth sharpened, "You want us to force them into submission?"

The benchwarmers plus Shōyō stared at him in slight concern. The shortest boy tilted his head, "That makes us sound like the bad guys." 

Ukai just laughed maniacally, "What's wrong with being the bad guys? You normally think of a crow as the bad guy!"

"Ukai, your face is scaring me!" Takeda exclaimed, fear of the new coach quite evident. Sakura stared at the blond man as he laughed evilly, she blinked at him. Honestly, why is this sport filled with such strange people, she wondered. 

The coach just continued on with his speech and disregarded any he freaked out, "We'll make it happen with sloppy speed attacks and receives. Those are your weapons, you clumsy oafs! Bombard them with all the weaponry in your arsenal! Hit them! Hit them and hit them hard!"

So Karasuno did just that. They did what they could with the skill set that they had to try and slow down Nekoma and gain on them with points. While Nekoma had got into the twenties first, Karasuno was gaining on them by only being behind by two points.

A timeout was called, and each team walked over to their respective benches. "Anybody flustered?" Nekomata asked his team.

Everyone shook their heads, "No, Sir!"

The coach smirked, "Good, keep that ball in play."

"Yes, Sir!" A simple but effective pep talk. Yua also gave encouragement to her team with her signature smile that never seemed to leave her face and some nice pat on the backs.

After the timeout, more points were fought for and soon enough the score was 22-23, with Nekoma still in the lead. Karasuno's vice captain fist pumped the air from the side, "One more point for the tie!"

"K-keep going!" Takeda gasped, shaking in anticipation.

Though they were all optimistic and rooting for the boys on the court, Kenma was able to slip one past them. He did a setter dump, which got past Shōyō and Tanaka and Nishinoya wasn't able to save it.

Takeda grabbed his head, seemingly just about ready to start pulling out his hair. "It's upon us when we least expect it! Match point for Nekoma." Sakura nodded her head, it's not that surprising, especially since Karasuno is somewhat of a newer team, like they said before. There was no way that they were going to actually win a game against such a team like Nekoma. In her opinion, she was surprised that they haven't been completely shut down by Nekoma. Even being able to keep up with them is slightly impressive in Sakura's opinion. Though she certainly didn't think that they were actually going to win in the end. And she knows that's not her being a pessimist, she's being a realist. Takeda then jumped up startling Sakura from her thoughts, "It's all right! Our team is still sharp!"

"Yes!" Tanaka shouted as he and the others ran up to spike the ball, "We clawed our way to a tie!"

Yamamoto made sure that he was the one to block the other bald boy, "You're not getting past me!"

Though this time it didn't go to him, instead Kageyama sent it to Daichi who spiked it and got them a point, "Right on!"

Nekomata growled lightly in annoyance, "Now their Number 3 is up in the front row."

"If we get a point now, it's a deuce." Kiyoko's angelic voice commented, since she didn't say all that much at all during this match. Sakura may or may not have forgotten that the older girl was even there. 

Takeda gritted his teeth, "Yes, a deuce would give us the opportunity to turn the game around! This one ball is crucial."

They watched with anxiety coursing through them. There was even a little bit in Sakura's veins, though she kept her cool and nonchalant mask on her face as she watched. Kageyama set it to Asahi, but it was once again received by Yaku. Though it ended up soaring over the net back to Karasuno's side.

"It's coming back! Chance ball!" Asahi shouted out.

"Shit," Yaku grunted, "I'm sorry!"

"Azumane, direct!" Ukai shouted out, shocking a few of the players.

Yamamoto gasped, "Oh, crap!"

"Do it, teddy bear!" Endo shouted out, louder than he had anything else.

Asahi did just that but Fukunaga received it in time, only for it to be yet another chance ball for Karasuno. It's extremely impressive how quick their reflexes are, Sakura thought to herself, they really are like cats.

Shibiyama groaned, "It's their chance ball again."

"That's fine," Nekomata commented to the pair of teens' confusion. "Even if you look sloppy or can't make an attack, as long as the ball is kept in play, you can't lose."

Yua nodded her head, "all you can do is keep making an effort. If you stop, then you truly lose."

Tanaka passed that chance ball to Kageyama who saw the glint in Shōyō's eyes as he ran across the court. Even from the bench, Sakura could see how determined her brother looked. Her chest swelled with pride for him. She wishes she could have that look, that same spark of resistance and hope in her gaze about something. Perhaps that might be some time soon. She feels as though she was half way there when she had the gallery last week, another time like that was bound to come around again.

Shōyō spiked the ball, finding that opening between the blockers. Even though it was saved by Yaku, it ended up hitting the net. It almost appeared as though Karasuno was going to get this point, but Kai was able to hit save it at least a bit. "It's not that the most powerful spike wins," Nekomata commented as they watched the ball. There was this moment, as if everything slowed down. The ball inched closer and closer to the ground. Though seemingly out of nowhere, the pudding haired setter came diving out of nowhere to try and save the ball. "It's that whoever drops the ball loses. That is what it means to keep the ball in play."

The ball was able to get over the net, and while Nishinoya and Shōyō ran after the ball to try and save it, it still hit the ground before either could reach it. So that was it, game over. Nekoma had won with the score of 25-23.

To say that Karasuno was disheartened is an understatement. They had put everything they could into this match, and were still beaten. How upsetting.

"We didn't make that many mistakes," Ukai commented with a large sigh, 

"and we utilized the most powerful weapons in our arsenal. But we didn't win. That must be a team trained 'as a team' rather than 'as individuals'. I accept defeat."

Not appearing to be as upset or bothered by the lose, Sakura furrowed her eyebrows, "It's only a practice match," Ukai, Takeda, and Kiyoko turned to her in question as she shrugged her shoulders, "If it were a real game, I'd see maybe getting upset about it, but it's not. All you can do is learn from this and use what you've learned in an actual game later down the line." This match didn't count for anything official. If they lost to Nekoma while they were in a tournament, then she could see the appeal of getting upset. However, since it isn't, there's no need to cry over this or feel disheartened. Nekoma is a formidable team, even if Karasuno lost to them, they still kept up with them quite a bit. So that should be an accomplishment in itself, from what Sakura thought.

Yua buzzed around her team, handing out water bottles, towels and high fives to the boys. "You guys are awesome!" She then caught sight of Kenma, who was seemingly trying to hide himself behind Kai, though it didn't work that well since Kai just pushed him in front of him instead. Kenma glared at him with daggers. Yua bounced up to her best friend and ruffled the top of his head. "And you, Mr. I don't like volleyball. You really put everything into this game, huh!?"

Kenma pushed her hand off of him and grumbled, "You're always so embarrassing after every game."

Yua's smile didn't disappear in the slightest, if anything it widened. "Of course! Since my boys play so well all the time, I'm entitled to embarrass you as much as I want."

"One more time!" Shōyō then shouted, scaring a few people with his loud voice. Though just about everyone was surprised that he had the energy to suggest that. "Let's play… one more time!"

Nekomata chuckled at the boy's exuberant amount of excitement. "Yeah, I plan to do just that! Practice games are all about playing all over again."

 ---

So the teams played a few more practice matches together. Eventually, the sun started to set as the boys all started to wind down from their intense games. "Now we've been thrashed beyond a shadow of a doubt," Ukai sighed, looking over Kiyoko's notes from their additional matches against Nekoma. It is true, Karasuno had not won a single match against Nekoma. They came close a few times, but the cats were able to pull through and beat the crows.

Takeda nodded his head, "Now they're truly exhausted." It's true, all of the boys were laid out on the court, thoroughly tired after playing quite a few more sets against each other.

"One more time!" Shōyō yelled out despite himself appearing to be just a bit tired.

The old coach blanched at the small boy, "What? You haven't stopped moving the entire time! What batteries are you using?" While he may have admired the boy's excitement to play more games, this was getting ridiculous. Didn't this boy run out of energy?

"Hey, knock it off!" Ukai yelled at Shōyō and grabbed him by his jersey, "They have to make their train!"

Sakura walked up to her brother and just shoved a water bottle into his hands, "you can't just keep playing, you'll pass out at some point, you know." Shōyō pouted but took the bottle from her and started to chug it. Sakura admires her brother's passion, but sometimes he can be a bit too much with volleyball, to the point where it could be annoying.

"Gather 'round!"

The two teams all then gathered around the benches. Ukai, Takeda, Kiyoko and Sakura stood at the Karasuno bench while the Nekoma team walked up to them. Meanwhile, at the Nekoma bench, the Karasuno team gathered around Nekomata, Naoi, and Yua.

"Me and his grandfather have known each other for a long time," Nekomata commented, glancing over to Ukai who was talking with the Nekoma team. "We used to have our teams play lots of practice games. It was always a pretty good contest, however… he retired." The older man sighed in slight disappointment, "Worthy adversaries just aren't that easy to find. After that, I heard that old man Ukai fell ill soon after coming out of retirement. I was sure that Karasuno would never come back from that. However, to be honest, you have more talent than I imagined. Especially in the attacking department. The Number 9, Number 10 fast attack…" the two boys puffed their chests at being called out, "I doubt many can prevent that attack. I also believe that your two left players are powerful weapons. It will all come down to how long you can keep the ball in play."

"Yes, Sir!" The boys exclaimed.

"As a team, you're rough and need more practice, but you have overwhelming potential. I'm sure you will improve greatly with the appropriate training. I'm really glad to see this." The coach smiled lightly, "We have a worthy adversary once again. I'll see you next at the Nationals. I'll see you at the place whirling with emotions with its throngs of spectators in that shiny, spotless, huge gymnasium. And we'll have our most ultimate Dumpster Showdown ever!"

"Yes, Sir!"

The boys all then started to clean up the gym, mopping up the floor, gathering up the balls, putting away the net, the usual. "You shit!" Kageyama shouted at Shōyō as they tried to work together and clean up the net. Key word; tried.

Shōyō stuttered at the aggressive boy, "You piece of poo!"

While they were cleaning, teammates from each team were interacting with the boys from the opposite teams. A bond seemed to be formed between Tanaka and Yamamoto for their shared admiration for their goddess Kiyoko.

Meanwhile, Kageyama had stalked up to the other setter, "How long have you been playing volleyball? Who taught you how to play? How long have you been a setter?" He muttered quickly, scaring poor Kenma, "Did you come up with that feint yourself? Have you been training? Have you ever hit a brick wall?"

The other setter just squeaked out in slight alarm at the intimidating aura. Shōyō had been right when he said that their setter was quite scary. 

"Oi, King," A lazy voice commented as someone walked up between the two. Kageyama glared at Sakura, who had placed herself in front of Kenma, "shut up, will you? You're scaring the guy." She isn't necessarily sure if the setter really knew that he was being intimidating, but it still was getting annoying. Though she honestly didn't think that he understood how he always had this glare on his face whenever he spoke to someone.

Kageyama clicked his tongue before stalking off, muttering under his breath about the girl and continuing his cleaning. Kenma sighed in relief, glad to not have the scary boy glaring at him. He quickly glanced at the girl, seeing how she was extremely similar to Shōyō which surprised him a bit. He noticed her earlier, but didn't think that she was a girl. Though that doesn't matter, he shyly thanked her, "Thanks."

"Sure." Sakura nodded, already seeing the tension dispelling from the second-years shoulders. She could see that he is quite the socially awkward person, something that she could relate to. Nothing more had to be said for each other as they went their separate ways. A mutual respect for each other started to blossom between them, Kenma respecting her for getting Kageyama to leave him alone, and Sakura for him being her upperclassman.

Just a little ways away, the other orange-haired Hinata twin was jumping up and down like a spring along with the Nekoma middle blocker, Inuoka. "That was incredible, Shōyō!" Inuoka exclaimed while jumping as if he were on a trampoline, "All those "vrooms!" and "swooshes!" Oh, I'm Inuoka, I'm a first-year."

Shōyō nodded his head, also jumping around, "And you're really tall, but you sure can "zoom!" and boom!"

"Your "zip!" was totally impressive!"

"Your "ba-zoom!" was too!"

"That "ba-ba-boom" was a real smash hit!"

"It was more "chu-doom!"

Tsukishima watched them with furrowed eyebrows, "What is that conversation?"

"That isn't the conversation of high schoolers." A smooth voice commented as Kuroo walked up to the tall blond, "But I think you could try goofing around more like a high schooler."

"I'm not good at it," he bordely commented before walking off, ending any sort of conversation between them.

Kuroo chuckled lightly, "You're so young."

"Yet he acts like an old man." Sakura clicked her tongue as she mosied past him.

Kuroo's eyes glinted slyly as he stopped the girl from continuing to walk, "Oh, another shorty, huh?"

Sakura rolled her eyes, "don't call me shorty, or you'll find out what it's like to live without kneecaps." 

The tall boy just continued to smirk, not that affected by her threat. After all, he could easily just hold her above the ground and she wouldn't be able to do anything. Oh, to be that short. "You're a feisty kitten, aren't you."

"Kitten?" Sakura scoffed at the nickname, which made no sense to her since she isn't from Nekoma, if anything she'd be a feisty crow, though she shouldn't care.

Kuroo laughed as he explained his reasoning, "yeah, you're small and adorable. Just like a kitten."

The orange-haired girl bristled in embarrassment at another person calling her adorable. Why do people feel like pointing that out? All it really does is fluster her. The tips of her ears started to turn red as she glanced away from him. "Don't say things like that, I don't even know you." First Nishinoya, now this guy? Geeze, when will Sakura catch a break.

"Oh, you're right." Kuroo said, "I'm Kuroo Tetsuro, you are?"

"None of your business," Sakura snippy stated before trying to walk off from him.

Though the captain certainly was persistent as he followed after her, easily catching up thanks to his long legs. "Now don't be rude, kitten." Sakura just continued to try and ignore him as they started to play this small game of cat and mouse. She really thinks that these people are just far too strange for her understanding. "Say, you must be shorty's twin sister, right?"

Sakura rolled her eyes. Wonder what gave that away, she thought to herself. Though she just huffed and tried to turn herself away from him so he could get the message to leave her be. "Don't call either of us shorty, it's annoying." Though he just continued to pester her.

As she was trying to escape the cat captain, they passed by another strange scene between the two teams. "I-I'm sorry," Shibiyama bowed to the ace of Karasuno, sweating and slightly scared of the bearded teen, "I should have been moving faster!"

Asahi gasped in surprise and tried to calm him down, "Wh-what? No, uh, I'm sorry."

Shibiyama shook his head and seemingly bowed even deeper, "I'm to blame! Please forgive me!"

Daichi scowled at the sight, "That bearded mouse is scaring the first-years."

Kai walked up to him, "They look like father and son from where I'm standing."

"They look more like a scared kid and his kidnapper to me." Daichi shook his head while Kai chuckled.

"Oh," Endo cooed at the scene and waltzed up to the pair. He swung his arm around Asahi, "don't be scared of this guy. He's nothing but a big teddy bear. Even if he looks like a thug." He poked his friend's cheek, trying to show Shibiyama that Asahi was nothing to be scared of.

On another end of the court, Suga and Yaku tried to have a conversation with each other, but they were interrupted by a certain fiery libero. "Excuse me," Yaku said to Suga as he started to sweat as he could feel the heated stare from behind him, "but I'm really getting stared at."

Suga chuckled nervously, "I'm sorry, just avert your eyes, and you'll be fi--"

"Number 3," Nishinoya shouted, causing the pair of third-years to jump, "your receives were amazing! I've never seen anyone retrieve spikes from our ace before. I believe you have amazing talent as a libero on a team with such good receiving skills! I won't be beaten by you! Excuse me!"

"Hey, that's too one-sided." Suga shouted after him, "I apologize on his behalf."

Yaku's eyes sharpened as he watched the slightly younger boy jog off, "He's dangerous. He's a highly skilled libero himself, but he doesn't rest. He only looks onward and upward. He's frightening."

"Say," Yua suddenly slid out of nowhere, slightly startling the two boys. "That's Nishinoya Yuu, right? From Chidoriyama?"

Suga calmed down his racing heart and nodded, "yeah."

The brown haired girl's green eyes sparkled, "really?! I've heard a lot of awesome things about him! And seeing him play today was so cool!" She gushed. Yua heard about him quite a bit back in junior high. Sure, she may have not been playing volleyball at the time, but she still had plenty of friends at the time who played against the libero. Her eyes then brightened as she turned to the grey-haired boy, "I'm Yua! It's really nice to meet you!"

The sparkling smile that she flashed him quite nearly blinded poor Suga who smiled sheepishly at the exuberant girl. "Sugawara."

"Nice!" She exclaimed, "what position do you play? Huh? I bet it's setter, right!" So Yua started to excitedly talk with her new friend from Karasuno who answered her questions with some laughter. It's always nice to make a quick connection with someone from another team, and Yua seemed to be just that.

 ---

Now that everyone had finished helping clean up, the teams were now congregating together outside of the gym. They were saying their goodbyes to their new friends that they were sure going to keep in contact after this. Even if the teams were sworn enemies with each other, it was all in good fun. On the court, they were opponents, though that didn't mean they couldn't be friends off the court.

A prime example of this is Yamamoto and Tanaka. The two were in tears as they said goodbye to each other, "Comrade, we shall meet again!"

Kenma eyed the strange scene as the two punkish looking teens continued to cry with each other. "What the heck is that?"

"Beats me." Kuroo grunted, "Don't look at them too much."

Yua just continued to watch the display in rapt fascination, she hit Kuroo's shoulder, "I'm telling you, they're long lost twins!"

Though Kuroo didn't pay attention for too long as he turned to look at Karasuno's captain. The two of them shared a tense chuckle as they shook each other's hands tightly. Kuroo gritted his teeth, "We won't lose next time."

"We won't lose next time either," Daichi grunted as he squeezed the other captain's hand.

Yaku and Suga slid over to the two captains, "Stop it! You're scaring us!"

Behind them, their coaches were doing the same thing. Ukai smiled evilly at Naoi, "The next time won't go down like it went today."

"I really hope so," Naoi said just as meanicingly, "or it won't be much of a practice game!"

Suga sweatdropped, "It's catching!"

"That's so immature!" Yaku exclaimed. Seriously, why do they feel like they're mothering these teams sometimes?

Endo eyed the interaction between his friend and the cat captain and tapped his chin in thought. "Think I should give Kuroo my number? Just so we can talk about volleyball, of course." He commented to Asahi, who stood next to him.

The ace bristled slightly, a sour expression starting to cloud over on his face. He grunted, "Oh, uh, I don't know." He really didn't like the fact that Endo seemed so… taken with Kuroo. He also didn't know why he didn't like it. A thought then popped into his head. "Wait, do you have your gym bag?"

"Huh?" Endo raised an eyebrow at the question, "Yeah, pretty sure I left it in the van…"

Asahi shook his head, "Are you sure, because you usually forget things easily."

"Ugh," the blond groaned, "I leave my bag one time at an away game, and you guys never let me forget it."

"Because you left all of your money in the back and complained to us that you couldn't buy food all day."

He clicked his tongue at the memory, "Ah, but you ended up getting me food anyway. That's why you're my favorite." Endo latched himself onto Asahi and hugged his arm closely.

"Oh, r-right." Yeah, Asahi really wasn't going to think about how being hugged by Endo made him feel warm inside, or that he was glad that he had distracted Endo from actually trying to talk with Kuroo. Because it didn't mean anything. Like at all.

"Kenma!"

The second-year setter turned to see that the twins had come over to him, "Shōyō…" He glanced at Sakura, not having gotten her name, so they just shared a little nod of acknowledgement.

"Remember when we met on the street the other day and you said you really didn't like volleyball that much?" Shōyō asked him, getting right to the point.

 Kenma blinked, "Oh, yeah."

"How about today?" The younger boy asked quickly, "How did you like winning?"

Kenma hummed for a moment in contemplation before sighing, "it was just the same old thing." He didn't feel all that different about winning. Kenma would feel the same way no matter if they won or lost.

That wasn't exactly what Shōyō had been hoping for, but he could work with this. "Next time… I'll make you desperate to win… and we'll win. And then I'll make you say, 'I hate losing!' or 'That was a blast!' You'll start talking differently about the game!"

Kenma's eyes widened, surprised at the passion from Shōyō. Though he smiled, more than pleased to have the boy care enough to change his perspective on the game. "Okay, I'll look forward to that."

Everything was winding down, Nekoma was ready to head to the train so they could get back to the city, and Karasuno was ready to head back further into the countryside. As Kenma and Shōyō were saying their final goodbyes, Kenma was finally introduced properly to Sakura. To say that the two teens got along is an understatement. Now, while the two were pretty quiet with their introductions with each other, they seemingly had an understanding with each other. Being two antisocial teens, they understood each other silently. There wasn't much of a need for talking all that much. However, Kenma did suggest that they play games together. Not the biggest person for games, Sakura was a bit hesitant, though accepted since she figured she could actually make a friend out of him. While she's hesitant to make a friend from a different school, having an online friend could help give her a bit of confidence to branch out to others. Plus, she's been meaning to have someone new visit her animal crossing island. 

"Well," Bouncing up to the trio, Yua smiled widely, which looked as though it was going to split her face in half. She was buzzing in place while looking down at the younger girl, "it was really nice to meet you, Hina! I can't wait to see you again!"

Sakura tilted her head with narrowed eyes, "Hina?"

Yua nodded her head enthusiastically, "Yeah, since you won't let me call you by your first name, I gave you a nickname. Isn't that nice!"

The newly nicknamed teen cringed slightly, though it's not like she could stop Yua. Sakura could tell that Yua was going to do it regardless of what she said. She scowled lightly, "Tch, whatever." Getting a nickname surprisingly doesn't bother her that much. If anything, getting it was actually a bit heartwarming. To know that she has someone close enough to her to come up with a nice nickname for her. The only problem is that it comes from someone that Sakura has only just met and barely knows. Hell, Sakura doesn't even know Yua's full name!

"Leave her alone, Yua." Kenma drawled out, "you're going to scare her off."

The girl gasped with a hand on her heart, a scandalous gasp leaving her lips, "'scare her off', Kenma, I would never do that!"

"No, he's right." Sakura nodded her head along with the pudding-headed boy, "Though I would much rather you don't even try to befriend me, doubt it'll work."

Yua deflated as Kenma and Sakura pinned her with nearly matching bored expressions. A slightly hollow expression started to wash over Yua's face, "Oh, you two are getting along well, huh?" 

Kenma let out a long sigh, now having to deal with a discouraged and saddened Yua on the ride home. No doubt he'll be hearing how wounded she feels about this until they get home. Even then she might end up texting him a whole bunch about it too. That's going to be a long night.

Now that Nekoma was heading off back home, Karasuno watched them go. Kageyama and Shōyō stared off into the distance. The setter grunted, "If that had been an official game… ...it would have been over the instant we lost in the very first game."

"I know," Shōyō nodded his head in agreement.

"So you are fully aware." Ukai commented, having heard the two first-years. Everyone turned their attention to their coach. "That official game, the Inter-High preliminaries are right around the corner. We're heading back right away. We need to reflect upon and analyze today's practice game!" He then turned to lead the way to the van, "And then, we practice!"

Determination struck just about every one of them as they nodded their heads, "Thank you, sir!"